SO CLOSE!

I just finished another semester of school and applied for graduation yesterday. I have one more summer semester with one class and my capstone project. I can finally see the light. I decided to go back to school 3 months after having Jaysa. I knew that I needed to be able to support my children if anything were ever to happen to C.J. This has been a long and difficult road for me. I have been stressed out of my mind and at times have had to put my family and motherly duties on the back burner. I have felt so incredible blessed to make it through these last two semesters. Last fall I had a really hard time getting into the classes I needed to graduate. I was so stressed because some classes were offered some semesters and not the next, some classes were full and I knew that I would be getting into my hardest classes. On top of that we had just found out I was pregnant and I was not willing to take any breaks from school. I have truly felt the Lords hand in the order of classes I take each semester. Fall semester was extremely difficult. I was stressed out to the max the entire semester and honestly hated my life. I remember just counting down the days till it would all be over. I took a psychological statistics class and we all know math is not my strong subject on top of that it was an online class and I had to teach myself the material. I also had to take a Natural Disasters class which wasn't hard but had an enormous amount of busy work and finally my Family Crisis Interventions class with the teach I could barley understand. That semester was so taxing that the day after I took my last final my doctor put me on bedrest. However, no matter how hard it was, now that I look back I can see that the Lord purposefully made it that way because the next semester I would have Paisley and would need an easier semester. This semester has been so amazing. NONE of my classes had tests! This is completely unheard of in college. I was also able to work ahead and stayed a month ahead the entire semester which took a lot of stress off my shoulders. Now I am in my final semester and I can't believe it. It may be hard but i am so close and so motivated to get it done. I am so grateful to the Lord for the order my classes have been in and the ease I have felt this semester compared to last. I honestly never thought or planned to graduate with a bachelors degree. I thought I would just settle with my associates and let my husband take it from there. It's crazy what our children motivate us to do. Graduating will be one of my biggest accomplishment and I am so proud of myself for making it this far.

BABY RECOVERY

Recovering after having a baby is an emotional roller coaster and requires much patience. Whatever you do DO NOT try on your jeans each week and DO NOT step on the scale everyday. It is absolutely depressing! I removed my scales from my house after having Jaysa because I was so frustrated that I wasn't loosing weight faster. It took me 7 months to truly get back to pre-baby weight and to where I felt good about myself with Jaysa. This time around it seems to be slightly faster but still frustrating. C.J. and I have been doing P90X five days a week and then running a few miles every night after P90X. It is a lot of hard work so I let myself have Saturday and Sunday off to eat what I want and relax. For the most part I have stayed motivated however this week I have decided to take the entire week off to reward myself. I am celebrating getting back to the weight I was when I got married and fitting into my regular jeans again. Even though I am happy to have accomplished this so quick I still have a long way to go. I may weigh the same I did when I got married but it is a very different body. I am still working off love handles, cottage cheese, getting my stomach muscles back and getting an all over tone. I weighed myself at the doctors office today and I weighed 113 which I was really happy about. I still have about 5 lbs to go till I get back to my pre-Jaysa weight and 10 more lbs to go before I get to my pre-Paisley weight. I know it will come with time and I will be perfectly happy at my pre-Jaysa weight but I am so impatient and wish it would hurry up. Oh yes! and then there are the stretch marks. Almost every girl gets some sort of stretch marks during pregnancy. If they tell you they don't they are either extremely lucky or their lying! If only my belly button were just a little bit deeper. Ha Ha I am sure that sounds weird. Yes, I got some stretch marks with Jaysa. They are just right around my belly button where I stretch the most when pregnant. After my belly shrinks they are small and white and nothing I have been embarrassed about. I still felt confident wearing a two piece swimsuit. With Paisley, since I went into labor at 30 weeks she dropped early and stayed there for the next 10 weeks, which made my belly grow a lot differently than it did with Jaysa. Two of my stretch marks got about a half an inch longer this time and are taking longer to turn white. I this is dumb and know some people might think I am crazy for putting this on my blog where the world can see it but I don't care. I am not one of those girls that tries to make everyone think they are perfect and put together all the time. We all experience life and I do my best to embrace it. I think it's good for people to see that we are imperfect at times.

Look back a little later today. I will be posting a little bit about my little niece, Jaylie. Last Tuesday the doctors discovered a brain tumor which has now been determined to be cancerous. She is only 5 years old. We are fasting and praying for her constantly and are hoping for the best. I didn't feel it was right to put her in the same post as my worldly weight concerns so I will make a special post for her later. Love you Kip and Kajsa.